MP Letter: Faith school admissions

Keep the 50% cap on faith school admissions

To appease demands from religious leaders, the Government is planning to remove limits on religious admissions at all faith schools in England, and open a new wave of religious schools which can select 100% of their pupils based on religion in the process.

We need your help to make sure this plan doesn't become reality.

Under the '50% cap' rule, new academies and free schools with a religious character in England may only select up to 50% of pupils based on religion when they are oversubscribed.

Now, the 50% cap is under threat – not just at new schools, but existing ones as well.

Abolishing the cap would result in a new wave of religiously exclusive, segregated schools that disadvantage children most in need.

Please write to your MP TODAY to ensure our Government doesn't scrap the cap.

Tips:

Personalising your letter will make it more likely to have an impact.
MPs will respond to casework even if they disagree on policy, so remember to tell them if you are being personally affected by this issue.
Keep your thoughts brief. MPs are busy and get a lot of correspondence.
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Use clear and simple language.

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Dear {{name}}

I’m writing as a constituent to urge you to call on the Government to abandon its plan to remove the 50% cap on faith-based admissions at academies and free schools.

The Government’s proposal to remove limits on faith-based admissions at new and existing schools with a religious character in England would be disastrous. Removing the cap would undermine inclusion, cohesion and tolerance in our communities at a time when the need for these values has seldom been greater
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As the Schools Minister rightly said in 2018, there are “good community and integration reasons” for limiting the extent of faith-based admissions. Those arguments still hold true, as does the broad consensus that removing the cap would be harmful to social cohesion, resulting in even more of our children being separated and segregated by their religion.

There is substantial evidence that faith-based admissions cause ethnic segregation, exclude poorer families, disadvantage pupils with special educational needs, and perpetuate unfairness against looked-after children. Removing the cap would therefore inevitably increase the extent of these injustices and social harms.

The needs, wellbeing, and fundamental rights of our children to be educated without discrimination must be prioritised over the demands and interests of religious institutions.

Removing the cap on faith-based admissions will result in more schools that divide and discriminate against children and their families based on religion. It would be a deeply damaging and regressive step, extending the injustice already present in our education system at a moment in time when its effects would be most harmful. That’s why the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has recently called for an end to the use of religious selection in England’s schools.

As I hope you agree, our education system should exemplify principles of equality and fairness, not encourage social fragmentation and segregation. I therefore urge you to call on the Government to maintain the cap on faith-based admissions at new academies and free schools, and to support progress towards a school system in which children of all faiths and none are educated together in inclusive schools.

Yours sincerely,

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MP Letter: Faith school admissions

Keep the 50% cap on faith school admissions

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